Title: Relativistic flying laser focus by a laser-produced parabolic plasma mirror

Abstract

Here, the question of electromagnetic field intensification towards the values typical for strong field quantum electrodynamics is of fundamental importance. One of the most promising intensification schemes is based on the relativistic-flying mirror concept, which shows that the electromagnetic radiation reflected by the mirror will be frequency upshifted by a factor of 4γ² (γ is the Lorentz factor of the mirror). In laser-plasma interactions, such a mirror travels with relativistic velocities through plasma and typically has a parabolic form, which is advantageous for light intensification. Thus, a relativistic-flying parabolic mirror reflects the counterpropagating radiation in the form of a focused and flying electromagnetic wave with a high frequency. The relativistic-flying motion of the laser focus makes the electric and magnetic field distributions of the focus complicated, and the mathematical expressions describing the field distributions of the focus become of fundamental interest. We present analytical expressions describing the field distribution formed by an ideal flying mirror which has a perfect reflectance over the entire surface and wavelength range. The peak field strength of an incident laser pulse with a center wavelength of λ₀ and an effective beam radius of w_e is enhanced by a factor proportional to γ³(w_e/λ₀) in the relativisticmore » limit. Electron-positron pair production is investigated in the context of invariant fields based on the enhanced electromagnetic field. The pair production rate under the relativistic-flying laser focus is modified by the Lorentz γ-factor and the beam radius-wavelength ratio (w_e/λ₀). We show that the electron-positron pairs can be created by colliding two counterpropagating relativistic-flying laser focuses in vacuum, each of which is formed when a 180 TW laser pulse is reflected by a relativistic-flying parabolic mirror with γ=12.2.« less

Authors:

Jeong, Tae Moon  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Jeong, Tae Moon"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-7206-2401"

Bulanov, Sergei V. ^[2]; Valenta, Petr  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Valenta, Petr"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1067-3762"

Korn, Georg ^[1]; Esirkepov, Timur Zh. ^[4]; Koga, James K.  ^[4];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Koga, James K."
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-7231-0206"

Pirozhkov, Alexander S.  ^[4];

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-6183-1383"

Kando, Masaki  ^[4];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Kando, Masaki"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9821-6779"

Bulanov, Stepan S. ^[5]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines, Na Slovance 2, Prague (Czech Republic)
2. Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines, Na Slovance 2, Prague (Czech Republic); National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Kyoto (Japan)
3. Institute of Physics of the ASCR, ELI-Beamlines, Na Slovance 2, Prague (Czech Republic); Univ. of Prague (Czech Republic)
4. National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology, Kyoto (Japan)
5. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Publication Date:

Tue Nov 30 00:00:00 EST 2021

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Fusion Energy Sciences (FES); European Regional Development Fund; Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS); QST Presidents Strategic Grant

OSTI Identifier:

1863912

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231; CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/15_003/0000449; JP19H00669; No. 20

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Physical Review A

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 104; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9926

Publisher:

American Physical Society (APS)

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY; high intensity laser-plasma interactions; ultrafast optics; relativistic plasmas